33 Horrifying Relics Hidden Inside Forgotten Mansions That Defy All Logical Explanation

If you think the Urban Explorers movement (often shortened to simply Urbex) is something new, born of the entertainment-saturated 21st century, you’re definitely mistaken. Firstly, people have always enjoyed exploring ancient abandoned buildings, houses, and dungeons. True, the original purpose of such expeditions was solely for enrichment.

For example, tomb raiding was trendy long before Lara Croft and Indiana Jones. Here’s further proof: literally all the tombs of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, both in the pyramids and underground, were plundered long before the advent of modern archaeology.

Incidentally, this is precisely why the discovery of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun at the beginning of the last century caused such a sensation in the scientific world. The fact is that this tomb has remained untouched since ancient times.

Well, this is largely because Tutankhamun, by historical standards, was a rather insignificant figure compared to other pharaohs. But now he is famous worldwide, over 3K years after leaving for the Hereafter.

One of the first reliably known “urban explorers” is the Frenchman Philibert Asper. In 1793, while serving as a porter at a Parisian hospital, he ventured into the catacombs beneath the city and never returned. His skeleton was discovered only eleven years ago, and was identified only by a set of keys.

Despite cynics believing that Asper’s true destination was merely the wine cellars, he is now considered a legend of sorts. About a hundred years ago, representatives of the French Dadaist art movement, aiming to combat “bourgeois” art and lifestyle, organized tours of the Paris catacombs.

The purpose of these tours was not so much to make money as to fray their nerves and create a kind of cynical parody of traditional tourism. However, the concept caught on and remains quite popular today.

In the 1990s, Canadian Jeff Chapman, known as “Ninjalicious,” founded what is now known as Urbex. His journal, “Infiltration,” in which Chapman chronicled his travels through Toronto’s “shadowy side,” including forays into hotels, abandoned factories, and tunnels, also became legendary.

Incidentally, it was Chapman who formulated the unspoken code of the Urban Explorers movement, the core principle of which is: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” After all, beyond aesthetic considerations, the various strange things you might find in abandoned places can prove dangerous.

For example, consider the forays into the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant exclusion zone, which became quite popular in Europe at the beginning of this century. To be honest, I visited there once myself, and I only have a couple dozen rather creepy film photographs to prove it.

There, in the abandoned houses in the villages around Chornobyl, there were many different “souvenirs,” but it’s best not to take them with you, as they could still contain traces of radioactive contamination. Even though more than a quarter-century had passed since the disaster at the time… So all that remains of these trips are photos and, of course, stories.

The development of modern civilization, especially the trend toward deindustrialization, which sometimes leaves huge factory buildings abandoned, has created a vast field for urban explorers. Simply search the internet and find something truly exciting and bone-chilling.

“I search the internet and try to make a nice list of possible locations, because when you do urban exploring, you never know if you [can] get in, get inside,” National Geographic quotes veteran urban explorer Bob Thissen. “It may already be demolished, it may be reconverted, or secured so you can’t get in.”

Every urban explorer has a wealth of stories to tell, but some of them would rather stay secret. Because, to paraphrase Forrest Gump’s mom, any abandoned object is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.

I can’t call myself an avid urban explorer – after all, I’ve only dedicated a couple of years of my life to this pursuit, and only made a few dozen different forays. But reading this collection of stories, I was reminded of long-forgotten sensations, the sound of my footsteps echoing through the vaults of empty buildings, and the anticipation of something unexpected around the corner.

So now, our dear readers, please feel free to read these stories as well, and maybe share your own in the comments below this list. After all, great stories are what make our lives more interesting and exciting.